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I'll make this very simple.. if you like ecchi comedy harem hijinks then it genuinely doesn't get much better than this manga. The balance of story, ecchi, harem, cute art and frequent laugh-out-loud comedy is just totally on-point. Don't be fooled by the torture element as it really serves as a great comedy-foil (without being over-used) to play off the character's antics.

Also don't be fooled by any overly pretentious reviews as this very much sits in the sweet spot between comedy, action, romance & drama that never takes itself too seriously but equally never becomes too episodic. There's plenty of cheeky mischief perfectly balanced with ... engaging story arcs and naughty 'accidents' that really make for an addictive read that's just hard to put down.

If you're familiar with Seitokai Yakuindomo and it's excellent comedy-timing then this delivers equally but with a much more consistent story, satisfying ending and character's you'll grow to love. Everyone has their penchant (and Ship) but personally I really rate the character art-work (Prez ftw!) and well-blaanced pacing where the story never felt too slow or fast.

As to the harem, well I won't spoil things too much but again if you enjoy harem shenanigans for what they are then this also delivers with sufficient 'progress' without overly spoiling the dynamic; which is some feat as a majority of harem-enjoyers will know.. precious few authors are able to successfully pull off that trick.

It's a real shame this isn't available in a licensed English version as it'd be a great addition to the collection. That said with a surprising number of original manga titles getting anime adaptations these days, just maybe we'll be blessed (or cursed in the event of a bad studio!) with this also being picked up. Fingers crossed!

Disappointingly mediocre is probably the best way to sum up this anime. Borrowing on the CoTE high-school competition formula this aims to be a little less serious and a bit more.. 'colourful'? Truth be told that's probably the best that can be said. Overall it doesn't do anything inherently wrong.. it's all just so average that after the end of 12 episodes it feels very 'meh'.

The plot involves our mc typically battling through various confrontations to an underlying story (and motivation) that only briefly comes up a couple of times almost as though an afterthought. The characters whilst delivering on their roles don't really have ... any depth beyond their basic cliches. The dialogue is uninspiring and sequencing just plain poorly executed. Even the couple of token ecchi elements are somewhat just shoe-horned in a couple of odd places to no real effect.

The one solid positive is the great OP tune and whilst the music is reasonable, the sound effects are awfully flat and beyond not bringing any impact actually feel quite out-of-place in a many parts. It almost feels like the production team had their checklist of success-criteria and pushed out an anime that albeit cohesively put together, just didn't have any real passion for it.

It's a interesting enough story but one devoid of character beyond it's fair art and where and effort is actually made some decent animation. Overall, the static "cardboard cut-out mobs" used here are a good analogy for the anime. Colourful and but ultimately lifeless and uninteresting.

You know, it's such a shame so many struggle to differentiate between fantasy and real life. The abject horror at discovering the fictional protagonist is a mere 14 years old seems to cause such personal angst as to warrant a complete disregard a top-rate anime. The production quality of the animation, style & colours, music, editing, visuals, storyboarding and above all directing are all excellent and fully warrant a score well above average in itself.

The story (I'm sure you'll have read the synopsis by now) is fun, humorous, intelligent, captivating and sexy with a good balance of SoL vs action. The pace is well executed ... and plot is not just interesting, but sufficiently unique to put it well outside the scope of 'generic' that naysayers are so fond of complaining about.

The varied use of animation and character styles are also well employed, but not overused, making the main characters all the more entertaining to watch. Special note should also be made of the ambience and mood which really elevates the anime to amongst the select few to outshine it's manga source material. It's hard not to be drawn into the world and deservedly sees this anime ranked No.1 for the current season.

So in summary don't get hung-up on small, and ultimately insignificant detail. This is a fantasy intended to tell a story and evoke emotions across a broad spectrum of viewer of all ages. It features a 'teenage' boy and a 'sudo-teenage' vampire exploring life after dark with an undertone of romcom hijinks. Enjoy it for what it is and appreciate an outstandingly produced anime.

TLDR: Don't bother unless you've read the source material first.

It doesn't take much for me to like anime. I'm not one of those pretentious individuals who demands top-tier animation or prize-winning stories to leave a decent review. I've enjoyed everything from Monogatari to DxD to NGE to 'In Another World with My Smartphone'! So it came as a bit of a shock that something as well received as Re:Zero would be so disappointingly unfulfilling.

To be fair, S1 started out reasonably well with a decent experience across all the factors that make an anime good.. animation, art, sound, directing, music, pace & plot. You we're left ... at the end of S1 with the distinct impression there was so much more to the story to look forward to in S2. So what went wrong? Well to put it simply, S2 is written, produced and directed for the hardcore fanbase. It relies heavily on viewers to have an established understanding of things that can only be known from reading the source material.

Scenes are confusing in their presentation and frequent hopping back and forth between events make it extremely hard to follow. References are frequently made to events or individuals that are never covered or further digressed upon. Motivations and decisions are confusing in their presentation carrying unseen and unexplained significance. Comedic interjections are poorly placed and very out of place. The constant shouting (by Subaru) used to emphasize emotion is frankly just lazy and really starts to grate.

Above all however, the excessive laboured expositions and lengthy diatribes on important matters, whilst work well in written format just don't play out as well in the anime. The choice to include so many for so long plays squarely to the fans who've read the material and are hungry for certain scenes. However for anime-only viewers, the frequency gets so tiresome you find yourself no longer emotionally invested or at worst outright bored.

At the end of all this having lost a large chunk of interest, you're left with a large expanded story and many more plot threads that leave you feeling confused, dissatisfied and with many questions. With nothing but derision awaiting for being ‘oblivious’ should you venture into the fanbase forums, the best advice I can give in hindsight is to read the source material first. This anime is by the fans, for the fans, and as the more positive reviews demonstrate a much richer experience awaits if you go into it well armed with a decent understanding beforehand.

I love isekai stories. I love them with or without the generic themes but none of that matters if the story is an inconsistent confusing mish-mash of ideas where the author, much less the reader appears to know what is happening. Minor spoilers ahead. The story starts off fairly well with a classic mc growth circumstances with a romantic save-the-girl subplot thrown in. Cue adventure and the harem trope and we're off.. and then things start going downwards.

Plot lines and arcs are wrapped too quickly before you even understand what's going on, tropes are dropped in (ie. cultivation skills) and then almost completely ignored, character ... traits are inconsistent, events have little to no impact either on story or character development and time-jumps are excessively used to retro-fit new plot devices that literally come out of no where.

At Ch48 I'm left skimming through because I've literally lost interest in a story that doesn't make sense and just feels like a patchwork of ideas mashed together. Even the original growth motivation and romantic subplot is turned on it's head removing the thread holding together what little of the plot there was.

Generally I have low standards for what makes me happy with isekai but story aside, even the art and structure is a mess. Over populated panels where you can't make out the action. Confusing decisions to use 'cute' character designs at inappropriate moments and lazy backgrounds just provide little redeeming qualities.

It's rare I leave a negative review but this is so bad it's officially my lowest rating on MAL. How this series continues to get serialised (much less translated) when far better titles are axed is truly galling. Save yourself an evening and read something else because this will feel like you wasted your time.

So it has to be said this story is an all too frequent example of a manga author who for reasons best known only to themselves decided to wreck their series with an incomprehensible and thoroughly unsatisfying ending. Sadly, one that goes well beyond a few bitter 'ship' fans that ultimately saw this series being widely deplored both domestically and overseas.

That distaste after reading is all the more bewildering given for most, the author delivers an outstanding story of thoughtful and entertaining character development - quite possibly some of the most interesting within this genre. There is a wide main cast with diverse and complex ... personalities threaded through with an interesting enough plot that doesn't overshadow the characters. For this, the series scores well along with some cute art and genuinely funny story telling at times.

If you're reading, then by all means do carry on as the story is still enjoyably in the most. Just steel yourself for a disappointing end that will make you question the point of 100+ chapters and some frustrating angst in contemplating what the author was thinking when he decided to wrap things up as he did.

That said, there is a small saving grace in the epilogue released post completion. Something done almost to satiate fans and one wonders given it's only a few pages if it was really only done in a vain effort to ensure fans woldn't completely abandon the authors future works.

With a title such as 'Happy Harem Making with the Mightiest Orc!' it should be fairly obvious this comedy isekai harem is not going to take itself seriously. So to readers expecting deep thought-provoking drama, you're in the wrong place! HOWEVER.. if you're looking for genuine lough-out-loud harem antics with a casual but interesting enough plot and a decent MC that isn't of the classic chad/simp mould then that this series is waaaaaaay up there as simply one of the best.

Without spoiling too much, for a simple enough reason our Orc-san is gifted with decent amount of OP-ness and motivation to set off on a ... mission to build his harem. Various adventures ensue with the author taking time to cleverly blend in classic isekai tropes across cooking, business, politics & medicine giving a nice variety of scenarios to explore. I've rarely come across a manga that so effortlessly transitions from one to another without it feeling forced.

Our mc character who is arguably one of the best characters in this genre, in fact possibly all manga, and is cleverly balanced in being both nice and confident without being arrogant or evil. And this is where a lot of the humour is injected from. The mc has a simple goal - build a harem and doesn't shy away from the notion which makes for great hilarity and conflict when faced with characters of more (rightly) sensible notions. What's impressive is after 50-chapters it doesn't feel old, and that's due to the author's efforts in focusing across the variety of tropes.

Equally, the comedy thread stays solid throughout with laughs found as much in the latter chapters as the first 10. If you've read the likes of 'The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You' then you'll absolutely love this. Give it a go.

I'm not usually one to write harsh reviews but to recap what's already been flagged by many others, The Detective Is Already Dead suffers from from poor plot execution to deteriorating animation to a lacklustre soundtrack. The seemingly only redeeming feature is the enjoyable first episode which had clearly more effort invested and the constant hint that actually underneath this sorry mess lies a much better story.

I hadn't read the light novels but this nagging sense that perhaps this anime may not being doing the the source material justice drove me to seek out some of the scenes where contextually things just didn't make sense. ... And of course unsurprisingly, it transpires what we have here is genuinely an incredibly poor adaptation of a much more worthy story.

The light novels are what you expect of the story. Things just make more sense. For example an introspective is just that and happens in a flash, not as protracted dialog in the middle of a battle. Also, characterisations and tone are far more evident which unusually are almost completely lost in the anime - such as Kimi wearing a shirt instead of a bathrobe in a key Ep7 scene.

Clearly, animators have to take certain liberties in converting a story and for the most, I think viewers can be forgiving if the anime brings some sense of the experience the source material sought to deliver. Even where an adaptation falls short, you can mostly take away at least some enjoyment because it had a great opening or those few events that really encapsulated a scene. The Detective Is Already Dead regrettably fails on all accounts.

There is nothing to take away from this other than a fervent desire to read the light novels and reframe the whole experience as it was intended. Which if considered then I suppose the animators have done a good job. However from the company that brought us 'Your Name' and 'Bunny Girl Senpai' this is a truly disappointing outcome which draws stark focus on some of the root causes plauging the anime industry at present.

If you struggle with stories about taboo relationships then you won't like this. However if you're open-minded enough to look past that, then what the author has crafted here is an enjoyable high-school romance between two characters very much in love with each other but tragically caught in a highly controversial circumstances.

Seeing their relationship struggle on and some of the more cute or edgy scenarios makes for an interesting read. You know it's wrong, they know it's wrong, but you can't help but root for them. At 26 chapters, there's a way to go with this story yet so it's too early to draw conclusions ... how the story progress but expect the stardard drama tropes with a conflicting love interest and several individuals discovering their secret.

Side characters are reasonable although nothing exciting and plot progress is at a decent pace. Artwork also is nothing to write home about but clear and clean enough to follow without too much background noise. Solid entertaining read for anyone who enjoys a bit of will-they won’t-they taboo drama.

STOP RIGHT HERE.. and read this manga now! If you're reading these reviews then you're likely in search of similar romcom manga of the likes of 'Komi-san' or 'Horimiya'. Well rest easy as you've found what you're looking for!

This title is flat-out diabetic in it's wholesomeness involving a somewhat introverted character getting to better know an extroverted one. Many classic high-school hi-jinks take place but are handled really well so you're never left feeling frustrated by mc-denseness or excessive interruption scenarios.

I'm really glad the MAL synopsis has been recently updated because at least it's clear this is a pure romcom with an utterly cute story ... with some heart-warming developments.. it's so hard to put down!

The style is similar to Komi-san in being more than a 4-koma but short of full manga - and it works really well with each chapter with enough content to progress the story just a little bit. You won't regret picking this up.